1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to computer-aided (CAD) design software. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a CAD application configured to create and manipulate objects representing open space areas or volumes in a drawing or model generated using a CAD application.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term computer-aided design (CAD) generally refers to a broad variety of computer-based tools used by architects, engineers, and other construction and design professionals. CAD applications may be used to construct computer models representing virtually any real-world construct. Commonly, CAD applications are used to generate computer models of construction projects, e.g., residential homes, office buildings, roadways, bridges, etc. A CAD application may provide users with a variety of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) views related to a particular design project.
Often, data contained in CAD drawing or model of a construction project is used to generate information regarding open spaces. Within the domain of architectural design, a “space” may refer to a collection of information regarding room area, wall area, room volume, etc. Also, more than one type of area may be calculated in reference to a given space. For example, the “usable” area of a room is frequently defined differently from the “gross” or “net” area of the same room. The difference between gross, net, and useable areas may be a simple offset from perimeter walls or may be based on more sophisticated rules. The calculations of the gross, net, or useable areas of a space may be measured in a variety of ways, typically based on established standards or according or specific rules.
Many building standards are available that define rules for how floor areas, wall areas, and volumes should be calculated, depending on the location and orientation of bounding elements such as the walls, floors, and ceiling. Such standards may include rules specifying, for example, how to allocate areas inside walls between adjoining rooms, or whether the perimeter of an area should be defined to run planar to the surface of a doorway or defined using the centerline of the doorway.
Such standards may also define rules that include or exclude portions of a room from the calculation of a space area or volume, based on the characteristics of the room. For example, standards established by the Swedish Institute for Standards (SIS) specify that areas in a room with a ceiling height below 1.9 meters do not fully contribute to the total area of the room. Similarly, building standards may specify that only a certain percentage of an area, volume, or perimeter of certain spaces (e.g. an enclosed patio), should be included in calculating areas. In addition to the SIS standards, other widely used standards for calculating spaces include those published by the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) and the Deutsches Institut fur Normung (DIN).
As defined by these established standards, calculations of gross, net, and useable areas are often used to generate reports such as estimates of construction cost, energy requirements/analysis, leasing documents, including the calculation of lease rates based on area, operating costs, project Development proforma documents including ROI and Construction Financing documents, etc. When users rely on these calculations to determine lease rates or to compare how much “space” proposed plans may provide, it is clearly important to obtain accurate measurements of space properties.
Currently, some CAD applications allow users to specify a set of architecture, construction and engineering elements (AEC elements) within in a CAD model to use in performing space or area calculations. For example, AEC elements may represent the doors, walls, windows, etc. of a building floor modeled in a CAD drawing. A user may select the wall elements that form a given room and direct the CAD application to calculate the area or volume of the room. However, once the area calculations are performed, the AEC elements that make up the room may be changed, moved, or removed from the CAD drawing. Thus, unless the space values are recalculated whenever the CAD drawing is modified, the calculations may become incorrect and obsolete. This makes the process of maintaining area-related information tedious and error-prone. Moreover, the definition of space boundaries in “open” floor plans may be ambiguous; without AEC elements to define a boundary between two adjoining spaces, the CAD application may be unable to perform space calculations correctly.
Accordingly, there is need for a CAD application configured to accurately calculate and maintain space and area-related data regarding open spaces present in a CAD model, including calculations of gross, net, and useable areas of space volumes or as defined by established standards or user specified rules.